Acts 6:1

And in those days Better, these. The narrative which follows is closely connected with Acts 5:14, where it is said, "believers were added to the Lord, multitudesboth of men and women."

when the number of the disciples was multiplied Better, was multiplying. The participle is in the present tense, and its meaning should be fully expressed. It was at the time when this sudden increase was in progress that the difficulty arose which led to the murmuring. The numbers of the society increased so rapidly that the superintendence of the relief of the needy claimed the full devotion of the Apostles, and proved in the end more than they could discharge.

there arose a murmuring By the readiness with which the Apostles took measures to remedy what was complained of, we may infer that there had been shewn sufficient cause for complaint. This may easily have come to pass without any fault on the part of the twelve, simply from the sudden growth of the number of Christians.

of the Grecians against the Hebrews The first-named, who are called in the original Hellenistæ, were either Jews who had been born in countries where Greek was the vernacular, and so did not speak Hebrew, nor join in the Hebrew services of the Jews of the Holy Land, but had synagogues of their own in Jerusalem, or else they were proselytes. In either case they had embraced Christianity as Jews, for as yet the Gospel had been preached to Jews only. That provision was made for a Greek service for the foreign Jews, we may see from T. Jerus. Sotahvii. 1 (Gemara), "Rabbi Levi, the son of Hithah, went to Cæsarea, and heard the voice of the people saying the Shema(the name given to the Hebrew confession -Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, Jehovah is one," from its first word) in Hellenistic. He desired to prevent them. Rabbi Jose heard of it and was angry, and said, Thus I say, that whosoever does not know how to read it correctly in Hebrew shall not read it at all [in that language], but does his duty [by reading it] in any language which he knows how to speak."

the Hebrews These were the born Jews who lived in the Holy Land and spoke the language which the New Testament calls Hebrew.

because their widows were neglected The very persons who, speaking a foreign language and being desolate, would be likely to be overlooked amid the increased number of applications for help.

in the daily ministration The original word is the same as that which in Acts 11:29 is rendered relief, and from the class of persons on whose behalf the complaint was made it is clear that it bears the same sense here. This word diakoniahas, however, caused the name of deaconsto be attached to these officers, whose appointment was at first made that they might have care of and distribute the funds contributed by the rich members for the relief of the needy. We can nevertheless see from St Stephen's work that the labours of the seven were not confined to these duties alone, for he is a mighty preacher and endued with gifts of the Holy Ghost in the same way as the Apostles. It is deserving of notice that, before we find any special arrangements made for what we now understand by "divine service," the regulation of the relief of those in need had become so engrossing a part of the duty of the twelve as to have thrust aside in some degree the prayers and ministration of the word, which were especially their charge. In these early days they appear to have acted according to St James" teaching (James 1:27), "Pure religion (θρησκεία) and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."